1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document management technique and, more particularly, to a document management technique for managing documents based on their storage periods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since electronic data are sanctioned as legally valid official documents according to the e-Document Law, the opportunity to convert and manage a large volume of paper document information into electronic data is assumed to increase in the future. In general, in a document management system that records and manages electronic data on a storage medium, a heavier load is imposed on the system user upon management of electronic data and resource prerequisites associated with information processing required for the document management system increase with increasing the number of electronic data to be managed. One of the factors that imposes a heavier load on the user is continuing storage of electronic data which no longer needs to be stored. For example, costs associated with access to desired electronic data increases with increasing amount of electronic data. The problem of the resource prerequisites of the document management system includes the following problem. That is, when unnecessary electronic data are kept stored without deletion, the storage medium cannot be efficiently used, and must be expanded by increasing the number of unnecessary electronic data.
To solve these problems, a technique for automatically executing document management processing by respectively detecting storage periods of electronic data stored in large quantities, and automatically deleting document data based on lapse of storage periods is required. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-324421 discloses a configuration that sets storage periods for respective document data and, for example, deletes document data according to detection of expiration of the storage periods.
However, such conventional configuration requires manual setting and management of the storage periods for respective documents in advance, resulting in a hassle.
Document data have various storage periods depending on their type, and some document data have legally-defined storage periods. For example, when a document archived as a paper medium is converted into an electronic document by, e.g., scanning, and that electronic document is managed, the storage period of the electronic document must be calculated in consideration of the period in which that document was archived as the paper medium. For example, when a document that has a storage period of five years and was stored as a paper document for three years is scanned, the storage period as an electronic document must be calculated and set, resulting in time-consuming operations. Upon changing the storage period of each document due to, e.g., amendment of the law, the user must manually set the storage periods again.